China seeks to improve customs procedures

China will improve its efficiency on inspections and quarantines during customs clearance as a major effort to boost the country's foreign trade, officials said.

Administrative procedures on inspections and quarantines will be simplified in the country's seven ports in the near future, including the Tianjin, Dalian, Shanghai, and Xiamen ports, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on Friday.

In Xiamen port, for instance, specific details of goods to be imported and exported now are shared via an online information platform among local authorities in charge of maritime safety, port management, inspection and quarantine.

"Under the platform, we can make arrangements on inspections and quarantines before goods enter the port. Thus, the stay of goods on the port will be shortened," said Zhan Siming, head of the Xiamen entry-exit inspection and quarantine bureau.

"Such simplified procedures on inspections and quarantines will cover all the ports in the country in the next three to five years," said Wei Chuanzhong, deputy chief of the administration, at a working conference on Sept 14 in Xiamen.

Also, inspections and quarantines during customs clearance will be free in all the ports in the country from October to December, and such costs will be lowered beginning next year in order to lower costs for traders, the administration said.

The move came after the State Council released a series of measures on Sept 12 to stabilize the country's foreign-trade growth after lackluster trade figures in recent months.

Government data showed that the country's total foreign trade increased 6.2 percent from a year earlier to $2.5 trillion in the first eight months of this year, far below the 10 percent full-year target set at the beginning of the year.